By REBECCA SHALOMOFF
Marching through a blizzard of ticker tape and a biting wind, more than 150 members of the Lawrence High School Marching Band, Cheerleading Squads and Flag Team joined in the parade that stretched from Battery Park to City Hall on Monday to celebrate the Yankees' World Series victory over the Mets.
As the only high school among 23 groups representing Long Island among the marchers and floats, the Lawrence students enjoyed the cheers of an estimated four million revelers who lined both sides of the Canyon of Heroes in lower Manhattan to honor the team that has won three consecutive World Series and four of the past five.
"It was more than just marching in a parade, it was a growing and learning experience," said Gary Schall, supervisor of Music and Arts in Education for Lawrence. "[Students] assumed the responsibility as role models. It put them in a historic moment."
It also gave them "a thrill of a lifetime," said Wilbert Pharr, drum major for the marching band.
"It went great," said Pharr, a high-school senior. "Everyone was excited and put on their best performance. I lost my voice because I was screaming so much."
School administrators and students were notified on Friday that the marching band would be performing in the fourth parade for the World Series-winning Yankees in five years. The trip was made possible by parents in the district who contacted New York Mayor Giuliani's office and the Major League Baseball Special Events office. Students spent 10 hours practicing indoors and outdoors over the weekend in preparation for the event.
The Lawrence Marching Band members are specially trained for and are veterans of big events. Select members of the group are sent to a marching-band camp at Westchester Community College, where they learn motivational and leadership techniques.
The students have performed at the 1999 Columbus Day Parade in New York; marched down Main Street of Disney World in Orlando, where they gave a special invitational concert, and accompanied Mayor Giuliani for Operation Santa Claus at JFK Airport. But the parade performance on Monday, school officials said, was the band's biggest event of all.
"They performed wonderfully," said Karl McDannell, who has been the Lawrence band director for 26 years. "It was a fantastic and great experience for the kids. They stayed focused even with a lot of distractions. The Yankee fans were exuberant."
Students gathered at 6:15 Monday morning to board buses headed for Battery Park. They practiced and met with other high- school bands, from New York City and New Jersey, in the hours until the parade commenced at noon. The students performed two pieces: Ricky Martin's "Cup of Life" and Elmer Bernstein's theme from "The Magnificent Seven." Marching down the mile-long path until around 2 P.M., the band played the two numbers over and over, with a series of drum cadences in between performances, as they passed by different audiences of hundreds of thousands of people, most of whom had taken off from school or work.
"I thought the people's excitement gave us a lot of energy and pushed us to go forward even though we were tired," said Serwaah Agyapong, a freshman and clarinet player.
"It was a good experience," James Nolan, a junior and percussionist, said. "It taught us how to play well; we had intense practice.
"We'll remember this forever."
